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Women's Leadership at Highlander Research and Education Center

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Women's Leadership at Highlander Research and Education Center Kansas State University Libraries New Prairie Press Adult Education Research Conference 2008 Conference Proceedings (St. Louis, MO) From Cook to Community Leader: Women’s Leadership at Highlander Research and Education Center Colleen McDermott University of Georgia Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/aerc Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation McDermott, Colleen (2008). "From Cook to Community Leader: Women’s Leadership at Highlander Research and Education Center," Adult Education Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/ 2008/papers/43 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Adult Education Research Conference by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Cook to Community Leader: Women’s Leadership at Highlander Research and Education Center Colleen McDermott University of Georgia Keywords: highlander, women, activists, social movements Abstract : The purpose of this study was to uncover the roles of the women of Highlander Research and Education Center and analyze how these women influenced not only the curriculum but also the institutional structure of Highlander. Robnett’s (1997) concept of bridge leader provided the theoretical framework for data analysis. The story of history is all too often the story of great men. Even institutions dedicated to social change are not exempt from this tendency. Robnett (1997) has highlighted how this played out in the Civil Rights Movement in which agencies expressly designed for change and equality mirrored the injustices in society within their own ranks. The same is true for what is arguably the most admired social-change institution in the field of adult education. Highlander Research and Education Center is the primary example of an adult education institution which works for social justice. Highlander has worked steadily to fight various forms of injustice for over seven decades; yet the story that is told is one of a great man, Myles Horton, one of its’ founders. Although he was a great man, he was not the only great person who was there. The research will try to tell the story not of a great man, but of the great women who affected this institution. Despite these women’s profound and far-reaching actions, the story of the contribution of women is always told as an anecdote or a slight embellishment on the story of the great man. The actions of these women have been eclipsed by the need to tell the “Highlander Story” as a great man narrative. There has not been a history written that puts women at the center of the narrative. Purpose This study does not deal with Myles Horton. We need a study which puts these women at the center of the narrative. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to uncover the roles of the women of Highlander and how these women influenced not only the curriculum but also the institutional structure of Highlander. The research questions are: 1. What are the roles that women played at Highlander? 2. How did these women’s actions impact the curriculum and institutional structure of Highlander? Theoretical Framework Although this is an inductive study in which my primary goal was to let the data talk, my research was not without an orientation. Perhaps the most important organizing concept for me as I approached this work was drawn directly from the work of Robnett (1997) and the notion of bridge leader. Robnett (1997) conducted a qualitative, historical study in order to uncover the leadership roles of women in the Civil Rights Movement and concluded that the gendered roles of women in the movement led to its success. Through this analysis, Robnett (1997) discovered the ways in which gendered roles and tasks formed two tiers of leadership. Robnett (1997) posits that women filled the role of “bridge leader,” connecting national or regional leadership to local constituents. She defines bridge leaders as community activists who used a variety of strategies to “foster ties between the social movement and the community” (Robnett, 1997, p. 19). Robnett states, “bridge leaders did not simply deposit a message to potential followers; rather, they engaged others in dialectic relationship, allowing for individual reconstructions of identities and interpretations of action” (Robnett, 1997, p. 198). She attributes much of the success of the civil rights movement to the establishment of this “two tier” level of leadership which provided the movement with strong, educated and experienced leaders at both levels of leadership. Robnett (1997) also suggests that emotion should be analyzed in the context of social relations. These findings are based upon an analysis of differences in leadership roles due to gender. For the purposes of this study as well as Robnett’s work, gender is a social construct which delimits roles and responsibilities for women and men within a society. Robnett’s findings directed me to attend to the roles of women and to the ways in which they may have contributed to Highlander’s innovative educational practices and continued success. Therefore, as I approached both the data collection and data analysis, this idea of bridge leader was uppermost in my mind. This led me to look specifically for instances in the data that illustrated this in the specific context of Highlander. Method This research stems from collaboration between me and the Highlander staff. In May 2006, I offered to assist Susan Williams, Highlander’s education coordinator, with a history timeline project created to tell the story of Highlander for their 75 th anniversary celebration fall 2007. In order to prepare to conduct interviews for this history project, I conducted a thorough review of past studies of Highlander and found that most of the literature did not discuss nor analyze the work of the women of Highlander. After reviewing the findings of Robnett’s (1997) investigation of the critical role of women in the Civil Rights Movement, I determined that a focus upon the role of women at Highlander exploring previously unexamined leadership roles and roles assignment at Highlander could be a fruitful and informative study. When I shared this interest with Williams and the current women staff at Highlander, they voiced excitement about a project which directly focuses upon the women of Highlander; therefore, I interviewed only women for my part of the timeline project. In order to address the research questions a variety of data sources were collected and analyzed. Data sources included in-depth interviews with Highlander’s women educators and staff members, analysis of women’s correspondence from the 1930s and 1940s, review and analysis of video and audio-taped workshops and examination of educational materials used in the workshops. The data were analyzed using an iterative process of continuous coding of interviews and analysis of educational materials. Williams assisted me to construct a purposeful, theoretical sample (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) in order to select workshop participants which represent the diversity of age, organizations, locations and time periods. Findings Women have had a profound impact upon the work of Highlander. The work of these women falls into two categories: “official” and “uncovered.” The official category relates to the ways in which the women of Highlander and the official histories of Highlander identify “important” women and women’s roles at Highlander. These official roles are part of the known story and the traditional narrative of Highlander’s history. Although they are mentioned in some of the literature, they are not analyzed nor are they even described in much detail. The uncovered category relates to those women and women’s roles whose story has not previously been known. Official Roles I found that, most often, women working at Highlander were hired to be educators or cooks. In addition, in both my interviews and archived interviews and in some of the literature, there are acknowledgements of the ways in which women have shaped Highlander’s educational methodology through their cultural work. In the 1994 Women’s Workshop, the participants discussed the ways in which these roles were shaped by society’s gender roles. They also renamed and expanded the official story of the cook to a fuller story of the caregiver who not only cooked but also worked to create the hospitable and welcoming environment. So, the official women’s roles are: women as educators, women as caregivers and women as cultural workers. Like any social institution, Highlander is shaped by the society and culture in which it resides. Even though Zilla Hawes (1932) discusses the ideal of equality between the sexes in a letter (archival data, 1932), she states that she is the only one cooking for “the boys” and she hopes that some of the “new boys” will bring a wife, sister or girlfriend who can help with the cooking and the cleaning. So, from the beginning, women struggled with traditional gender roles while working at Highlander. My interviews with women educators working at Highlander in the 1940s and 1960s reveal similar struggles. They are hired to cook, but, shortly after their arrival, they take on roles which challenge traditional models of “appropriate” women’s work. The roles of these women as founders, innovators and leaders is largely unexplored and has only begun to be discussed recently at Highlander. Uncovered Roles Analysis of archival records of the 1930s and 1940s led me to look for previously unidentified women’s roles. In Zilla Hawes writings, I found evidence of three unacknowledged and unrecognized women’s roles: founders, innovators and leaders. First, Zilla Hawes was listed on Highlander’s Charter.
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